


Character Building

by Miss_Murdered



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Awkwardness, First Kiss, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-18 05:17:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8150401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Murdered/pseuds/Miss_Murdered
Summary: Shiro sends Lance and Keith on a camping trip to try and stop their "irritating bickering" and build character. Yet all it leads to is conversations and awkwardness. And some kissing.





	

“Keith…you awake?”

Lance is pretty sure Keith is asleep (or pretending to be) but he can’t sleep even though he is trying (he really is) and so he thinks the answer to his predicament is to wake Keith up.

It was kinda cold in the tent but Lance guessed he would usually ignore the discomfort and man up and sleep. But he can’t. Not when Keith is so damn close in the tent and the layers of sleeping bags seem so thin despite the plush coziness (Coran provided them despite Shiro’s insistence this endeavor was meant to be “character building” and to ensure they stopped their “irritating bickering”).

Glancing over, Lance figured that Keith can’t be asleep and is just ignoring him for the sake of ignoring him. Which is irritating to Lance. But then 99.5% of everything that Keith does is irritating Lance. Like the way he always has to be so damn _serious._ It’s like Lance gets it… he really does. Voltron is important and defending the universe and all that jazz is what Lance lives for. But least he can do it with a smile on his face, a spring in his step and the occasionally quip. And not the irritating superiority that Keith seems to embody in his every action.

“Keith… come on…  I know you’re not asleep.”

He’s certain now that Keith is awake. As even though Keith wasn’t moving and was trying to be still, he was almost too still and his breathing wasn’t level  and so Lance knew he was awake. He was just left wondering how long it will take for Keith to get irritated and either hit him or start some stupid ass argument.

To be fair, Lance doesn’t mind either.  Keith doesn’t hit him _too_ hard and Lance likes their bickering even if Shiro finds it annoying and Hunk and Pidge indifferently ignore it.

Sighing, Lance turned onto his back and folded his arms behind his head, the back of his skull resting on his hands. He whistled low, a song that he remembered being popular back at the garrison and he awaited on the response from Keith. Really Lance isn’t entirely sure why he’s so intent on annoying Keith and gaining Keith’s attention and whatever else he seems to do that gets Keith to respond. It’s funny sometimes, to see the seriousness and that intenseness seem to fade, and Lance does like that small smile. And those brief touches of hands and shoulders.

“Don’t make me ask again… I know you’re awake.”

A grunt was the response and Lance saw the movement of Keith beside him in the small tent from the corner of his eye.

“What do you want?” he ground out, irritation pouring out of every syllable.

“I can’t sleep,” Lance replied, nonchalantly, looking towards Keith who suddenly started to turn a red that matched his lion.

“And how is that _my_ problem?”

“Well…I needed someone to talk about the universes great mysteries and the meaning of life…”

“Go to sleep, Lance.”

“Come on, Keith. We’re on this “back to nature” bullcrap mission together, we might as well bond and talk like Shiro wants us to. We can sleep back in the castle, right?”

Lance knew he had been being annoying and irritating but now he had just given a good a reason for staying awake and now Keith was looking less red and more thoughtful. Bingo.

“What do you want to talk about?” Keith asked, a little uncertainty present in his tone.

Maybe he worried what Lance was going to pick as a conversation starter. And Lance supposed there was good reason for that. There were times his mind (and humor) went in to the gutter.

“Umm…do you miss home?”

The seriousness seemed to startle Keith and Lance could see his outline sit up in the small space of the tent.

“Yeah… I just try not to think about it. Try to just focus on training and getting better and…”

Keith’s voice wavered and Lance sat up alongside him, their shoulders brushing in the close proximity of the tent. Lance thought that with all the Altean technology that Coran had on hand, that surely tents could have been bigger or maybe that was part of the point of the task. To make Keith and Lance talk and work together more effectively.

“I know… sorry for asking,” Lance replied, his eyes looking at the sleeping bag that cocooned his legs.

“No… it’s fine. It’s just I’ve been trying to forget the past and just think about what we have to do. I don’t want to think I won’t go home.”

“What do you meant ‘you won’t go home’?”

“What we’re doing isn’t like training at the garrison… it isn’t playing, Lance. And if we try and defeat the Galra, there’s going to be losses and sacrifices to be made. And I don’t have much to go back to earth for.”

“Keith…” Lance began and then opted to respond in a blunt and effective way. He slapped Keith, not hard, but enough to sting across the cheek. “Don’t talk like that. We are the defenders of the Universe! We are Paladins and pilot badass lions that form into the coolest robot in the history of everything! We are going to defeat Zarkon and every Galra idiot who crosses our path!”

Wide eyed and rubbing at where Lance’s hand had made impact, Keith only stared in astonishment. Yeah, Lance was very aware that what he was saying was wishful thinking, that it was almost stupid and suicidal thinking but Lance wasn’t going to let doubt creep in. Not now. Not ever. And he was not going to let Keith think like that.

“You’re not a loss or a sacrifice, Keith,” Lance said, finally and he felt suddenly far too hot and far too close to Keith.

So he did the only thing he could do in such a confined space. Attempt to leave. And in that attempt, Lance spectacularly failed.

In the tight confines of the tent and the sleeping bag, Lance ended up nearly falling over one way and then another, until he thought he had found his footing only to lose it again and tumble onto Keith. Right on top of him. Face to face.

In the inelegant scramble, Keith was pinned to the floor of the tent and Lance’s body was firmly on top, the only thing separating them the thick blue padding of their sleep bags. In the limited lighting, Keith’s eyes seem to shine and Lance tries to remember what colour eyes he has (he’s looked far too closely far too many times) but now he’s flustered and can’t remember anything at all.

And he loses all memory and thought when Keith’s breath ghosts across his lips. It feels warm and Lance instinctively licks at his lips, the tip of his tongue almost making contact with Keith’s mouth. It’s so close. So close and so far.

Lance knows his insistent pestering of Keith is not _really_ because of disliking him. As Lance doesn’t dislike him even with his serious face and stupid flicky hair… And if Lance admits it (which he doesn’t), there is a reason he finds himself constantly thinking about Keith. It is the reason he finds his hand reaching to touch that stupid flicky hair – soft in his fingertips – and why their lips press together messy and urgent and inexperienced.

Lance liked to talk a big game, he knew he did, but he had been a failure at the actual kissing thing and though he’d researched it, the actual experience of doing it was different to what he imagined. It didn’t taste of mint or cinnamon or whatever kisses were meant to taste of. There was a staleness of the last green goo meal and whatever edible thing that Hunk had managed to concoct to remove the flavor of that from their mouths.

Tongues didn’t clash, didn’t wrestle, and there were no battles for dominance. Instead, Lance tried to tilt his head and let his tongue slide into Keith’s mouth, and he tried to not make a complete mess of the whole thing and drool or do something equally stupid.

His body wanted to jerk, he wanted to do so much more… but Lance also felt a head rush from just the kiss and he almost brought the entire tent down with his attempt to move off Keith in a smooth motion that turned into a scramble.

Lance was going to get out of the tent, take a minute to cool down his face and stop the thudding of his heart (and drink a gallon of water as his mouth suddenly felt so _dry)_ when he felt a hand on his arm, gentle but firm, keeping him in the tent.

“Thanks,” Keith said softly, a nod of his head accompanying the word.

Not sure whether he was thanking him for the kiss or the words, Lance only gave a feeble “sure” in response as he was pretty sure it wasn’t for the kiss (he was sure it was a pretty sucky one).

“We should sleep. Training in the morning.”

Lance didn’t say anything, not sure whether Keith was pretending the kiss had never happened or something, so he only tried to get back into his sleeping bag properly without falling (again) and lay back down to attempt to sleep (which he was sure he would fail at).

Though it seemed Keith wasn’t trying to forget the kiss. As when Lance lay down, he soon found a hand seek out his own and a head find a spot to rest on his shoulder and while Shiro had probably intended them to do something else with the alone time, kissing didn’t seem like a bad way to stop their bickering. And Lance would remember it for future reference.   


End file.
